Southeast Asian startups, East Ventures has new US$27.5M fund for you

The fund is the venture capital firm’s fifth after six years of operation

Singapore-based venture capital firm East Ventures today announced a new US$27.5 million fund targeting Southeast Asian startups. Raised from undisclosed “prominent families and entrepreneurs,” the fund marks the company’s fifth after six years of operation.

In a press statement, East Ventures claimed that assets under its management have increased tenfold, and that this year it is expecting to see more mergers and acquisitions of its portfolio companies.

The company also noted there will be fewer Series B investments this year, though it will continue to invest in more than 20 startups in the region, which it claimed to be its average number per year.

DailySocialnoted in its annual fintech report that East Ventures has been the most active investor in the Indonesian fintech sector in 2016, with almost half of announced funding rounds involving the company.

In 2016, East Ventures had also invested in several agritech startups including Eragano, iGrow, and LimaKilo.

East Ventures has 80 companies in its active portfolio in Southeast Asia, with more than 70 per cent of these claiming to have received follow-on funding. Apart from Indonesia, it is also active in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan. The company’s most notable portfolio includes Tokopedia and Traveloka, which are often believed to be the region’s next unicorns.

Seven of its portfolio companies had also experienced successful exits, including Groupon’s acquisition of Disdus, Yello Mobile’s purchase of PriceArea, migme’s purchase of Shopdeca, and Kompas Gramedia’s recent acquisition of Scoop.

It also operates the coworking space EV Hive in South Jakarta and BSD City.